


i will (have) cast my lot with you

by sleep_247



Category: Code Geass
Genre: (like very minor), Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Violence, in which lelouch is a demon lord who has waited a very long time, potentially a prequel....
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:28:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23307574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleep_247/pseuds/sleep_247
Summary: “To think that you were the Hero of Prophecy….” Lips twisting into a wretched smile, the demon lord raises a trembling hand to cover his eyes. “Five hundred years of waiting and chasing after shadows… and this is where I find you...?”“What are you even talking about?!” Suzaku demands, staring at the figure before him in bewilderment.Zero’s hands fall to his sides, limp. “Don’t you…” The demon starts, then stops himself with a grimace. “Ah, Suzaku….”He exhales his name into the wind; wistful, wanting— it carries over on a thousand sighs.
Relationships: Kururugi Suzaku/Lelouch Lamperouge | Lelouch vi Britannia
Comments: 7
Kudos: 159





	i will (have) cast my lot with you

**Author's Note:**

> this was originally intended to be around 1400 words. 
> 
> and then i struggled with transitions, was almost about to give up, and well. here we are. please enjoy. im never writing for code geass again. LOL

_Calling it ‘confusion’ doesn’t even begin to cut it._

_For most of his life, Suzaku had been preparing for a battle to the death— to subdue the feared demon lord of Britannia and bring peace back to their land. Instead, the supposed battle of the ages concluded with laughable alacrity. Separated from his troops and rendered completely immobile by Zero’s containment spell the moment he stepped foot into the Crossing— he never stood a chance._

_When the demon lord had reached over to unhelm Suzaku, the hero had steeled himself to bite off his own tongue in a final act of defiance._

_What he hadn’t expected, was for Zero’s blasé expression to crumple in despair._

_“To think that you were the Hero of Prophecy....” Lips twisting into a wretched smile, the demon lord raises a trembling hand to cover his eyes. “Five hundred years of waiting and chasing after shadows… and this is where I find you...?”_

_“What are you even talking about?!” Suzaku demands, staring at the figure before him in bewilderment._

_Zero’s hands fall to his sides, limp. “Don’t you…” The demon starts, then stops himself with a grimace. “Ah, Suzaku….”_

_He exhales his name into the wind; wistful, wanting— it carries over on a thousand sighs._

_Calling it ‘confusion’ doesn’t even begin to cut it._

_Suzaku feels light-headed. His stomach turns. He doesn’t understand why there’s an oppressive heat that wells up in the corner of his eyes, why there’s a lump in his throat that claws up from the wretched hollow in his chest. He wants it to stop. Overwhelmed, he closes his eyes, willing the tempest in him to settle._

_When he opens them again, the demon lord is long gone._

.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.

The air quivers with nervous tension as the Black Knights hasten to set up encampment in the secluded forests bordering the state’s capital, Pendragon. Roughly a year had passed since Suzaku had cast aside his mantle as the legendary hero of Britannia, and with it, his post as captain of the empire’s squad of elite knights. Now, he leads a ragtag group of vigilantes that are committed to a singular cause— of overthrowing the absolute monarchy and its rotten system of bondage to the land. 

Observing his comrades chatter quietly among themselves from his post, Suzaku’s heart flares with a hint of pride. _They’ve come a long way._

“Suzaku.” 

Tapping him on the shoulder is Anya— a fellow defector of the Knights of the Round, and a lethal bruiser in her own right. The pinkette extends a tin can with the evening’s meal towards him.

With a soft smile, Suzaku accepts his portion gratefully with two hands.

“Thank you, Anya.” 

Anya nods once, her face ever impassive, before heading back to the camp clearing. 

When he no longer hears the girl’s footsteps, Suzaku stares at the chunks of potato and carrot floating in the soup. It’s painful to admit, but it has been difficult to scrounge up an appetite as of late. He chalks it up to a case of the nerves; after all, it would not be an exaggeration to state that the future of the people was hanging on the successful capture of Pendragon tomorrow. If Suzaku and the rebellion forces failed, it would not only mean their imprisonment and public execution. A violent crackdown on the common people— those who had taken arms or hidden them, provided them supplies in this collective resistance— was sure to follow, in order to convey the message that any form of resistance against the Britannian monarchy would be brutally quashed. 

Suzaku grips the can tighter in his hands. Failure was not— _could not_ — be an option. 

“The Black Knights must be feeling confident, with how listless the watchguard is.” 

A bemused voice brushes against his ear, jerking Suzaku out of his thoughts. Cursing himself for being caught off-guard, the ex-hero turns to his side, catching sight of a handsome man clothed in traveller’s robes. The only thing that betrays the stranger’s true identity are his amethyst eyes that flicker in the shadows— irises belonging solely to the fabled demon lord. 

“Zero…!”

Almost instinctively, Suzaku whips around towards the campsite. 

“Worried about being seen consorting with the devil?” 

Suzaku ignores the obvious bait. As he’d expected, what greets him is the sight of the rebellion forces collapsed on the ground, near skeletons of unfinished tents. It’s not unlike their second encounter, when the demon lord had cast an area-wide illusion that isolated Suzaku from his squadron— back when he had led the Knights of the Round. _No need to be so hostile, Hero. I don’t favour unnecessary bloodshed,_ Zero had announced then, appearing out of thin air with a flourish.

The corner of his lips twitch. It’s hard to suppress the familiar sense of exasperation and fondness that creeps through his chest, like a stubborn weed that peeks out from between cobblestones; Suzaku doesn’t want to explore how his fondness for the errant demon has been slowly outweighing the exasperation preceding it. Instead, he turns back forward, cradling the can of soup in his hands. 

“What did you do this time?” 

The demon lord ignores his question, choosing instead to lean over to peer into the tin can and inspect its contents. 

“Hmm… tonight’s dinner seems to be rather lean for a human adult. Shall I be your patron, Suzaku?” With a snap of elegant fingers, gold coins tumble into the demon’s hand, falling through the gaps to the ground in muted clinks. 

“Zero, answer the question.”

“A stick in the mud, as usual.” The demon lord replies with mock pittance, waving his other hand half-heartedly; in an instant, the gold transforms into butterflies that flutter away into the air. “I only put your rebellion members to sleep. They’re dreaming of carrying on with their tasks, and will wake up in time for the raid— satisfied?” 

Suzaku sighs. 

“That means I have to be the one to set everything up…” 

“If you ask nicely, I might consider helping you out. I do have a debt to repay to the Hero of Prophecy....” Zero peers at him with a magnanimous smile. In spite of his benign expression, Suzaku knows it is anything but. 

“I’ve told you to stop calling me that,” he replies instead. Suzaku lifts the soup tin to his mouth, taking a sip of the broth.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

_They’re close._

_Suzaku is crouched over Zero, hands hovering above the demon lord’s chest. The situation is hardly ideal, but there’s little alternative in the given circumstance; with the First Squadron of the Britannian Royal Army hot on their trails, led by none other than the Bismark Waldstein, the First Knight— it was all Suzaku could do to shovel himself and a fatally injured demon lord into a tiny, hidden cavern off the coasts of Gloucester._

_“To save the demon lord… you’re quite the heretic, aren’t you, Hero? Going against the teachings of the church… I had always pegged you as a lapdog of the Britannian royalty.”_

_It’s a callous jab meant to rile him up— Suzaku doesn’t respond, brows furrowed in concentration as he casts the only healing spell he knows. The gaping hole that stretches across the demon’s chest is horrifying to see up close— and Suzaku, with more than twelve years in the front lines as both foot soldier and Knight of Seven, has had his fair share of battlefield wounds._

_“How bold. Even the dullest members of your motley crew know to avoid direct contact with me,” Zero muses, his tone light. A brave display of bravado, though the clamminess of his skin hides little of his condition._

_“Are you not scared of being— what do they call it… ah, yes. Brainwashed?” The demon lord murmurs, eyes fixed lazily on Suzaku. “I could activate my Geass any time.”_

_“If you wanted to turn me into a mindless puppet, you would have done so by now,” Suzaku mutters._

_Zero chuckles at his answer. “Who’s to say you haven’t already fallen under my control? My methods aren’t so crude as to be reduced to simple parlor tricks…”_

_It’s a little cruel, but Suzaku forces a sharp burst of mana into the wound. Zero flinches in pain, shooting the taller man a heated glare._

_“You would be wise to remember that I am not an invalid—”_

_“Do you think this is easy for me?!” Suzaku snaps, voice cracking at the edges. His shoulders shake with the grip of frustration and fear. What exactly was he supposed to think?_

_To heal a wound inflicted by one of the Knights of the Round, considered to be the will of the Britannian emperor— the consequences were clear as day, and yet here he was, putting everything he’d ever known behind him to stop a half-dead demon from bleeding dry on the cavern floor._

_A half-dead demon who talked as if he knew Suzaku from another life._

_Suzaku takes in a shuddering breath, willing himself to calm down._

_“Everything we had been taught about the demon folk and the Underworld has been a lie. The records of the mana channels being rerouted by the Britannian royalty, the experiments conducted on siphoning the life force of the common people to nurture the farmland of the aristocracy— I didn’t believe them at first. Didn’t want to._

_But you were right. The contradiction between the wealth of the royalty and the suffering peasants that worked the land but had nothing for their labor— it all clicked into place.” The knight hangs his head, feeling drained. “Zero. Why did you tell me all of this? What is your objective?”_

_The demon hums, pensive. “You would take my word over that of your fellow humans?”_

_“Fellow humans? Who? The Britannian royalty?” There’s nothing funny about it, but Suzaku lets out a dry bark of laughter. “I’d sooner cast my lot with you than those rotten bastards.”_

But there’s more to that, isn’t there?— _whispers from the corner of his mind. It’s the part he doesn’t want to acknowledge, quashed into the deepest crevice of his heart and never let surface. He’s not ready to make that commitment— not yet, perhaps never in this lifetime._

_Even so, Zero stills— all traces of humor wiped from his face as he stares at Suzaku with an indiscernible expression. Something fragile hangs in the air; whether they were both a little scared to disturb it, or too weary from their desperate escapade from the capital, the conversation trails off into silence._

_Eventually, it is Suzaku who breaks the ice, as the last bit of healing mana ebbs to a halt._

_“This is the best I can do. Unfortunately, I’m not as proficient in the healing arts...”_

_The newly-formed skin is a splash of pink across the demon lord’s pale chest; Zero raises a hand to trace the raised edges._

_“I have no complaints,” the demon says, observing Suzaku’s handiwork. “I will recover fully when I return to the Underworld.”_

_“To the Underworld?”_

_“I have no contractor to tie me to this realm.”_

_“But that— I thought—” Suzaku stumbles over his words, “... doesn’t that require an incredible amount of mana?”_

_At the knight’s confused expression, the demon lord smiles wryly. “Why else do you think Emperor Charles had been so hellbent on capturing me alive all these years? To parade me around as a new addition to his exotic exploits?” He laughs sharply as Suzaku averts his eyes, bright red spreading to the tips of his ears._

_“Forming a contract with a demon’s true name unlocks not only our full mana reserve, but gives one access to it… and binds us to the contractor’s will. The emperor would rather have me dead, if he couldn’t get his hands on my true name. After all, with my Geass—”_

_A sudden gust of wind funnels through the cavern entrance, carrying with it whispers of words Suzaku cannot decipher._

_“What was that?!” The knight starts, grabbing the hilt of his sword._

_Zero sits up, narrowing his eyes. “The royal knights just crossed my first barrier. It’ll take them some time to manage past my illusions, but we should leave this place.” Wrapping the remains of his cape around his shoulders, he continues, “I can teleport you to a safehouse. One of my generals will be there to aid you until you can regroup with allies.”_

_“A safehouse…?”_

_Sensing the knight’s hesitation, the demon lord raises a hand over his eye with a grim smile. “That is, unless you’d prefer this entire encounter to have been forced by my hand.”_

_“I...” A myriad of emotions flicker across the human’s face, an unspoken battle of conflicting thoughts, before Suzaku shakes his head. “No. I can’t go back… it’s too late for that, with what I know now.... I need to do something.” Squaring his shoulders, Suzaku meets Zero’s gaze, quiet determination burning in his eyes._

_“I’ll entrust my fate with you.”_

_A flash of inexplicable sorrow shadows the demon lord’s expression, before melding into immeasurable warmth— Suzaku blinks, perplexed at the fleeting sight before his eyes. He doesn’t have the luxury to mull over what it might mean, as elegant fingers wrap around his own, Zero tracing a teleportation glyph on the top of his hand._

_“Safe travels, Hero… we will meet again, soon enough.”_

_Before Suzaku can react, Zero brushes the top of the knight’s knuckles with his lips. When the brunet stares at him in bewilderment, the demon merely responds with an enigmatic smile, laughter in his eyes as the glow of the teleportation spell completely envelopes Suzaku._

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

“Is that a request I hear?” Zero asks, staring bemusedly at Suzaku with a tilt of his head. “Quite a simple one, but fitting for a traitor of the state…” 

Suzaku shakes his head, suppressing the urge to smile. Downing the remains of the soup, he replies, “Leave it, Zero. I’m running late on setting camp as it is.” When he stands up from his seat, the ex-hero turns to face the demon lord. 

“Are you going to stay the night?” 

Mere seconds after the words leave his mouth, Suzaku flushes, feeling a twinge of regret at the jabs at his so-called ‘purity’ and the like that were sure to follow— but Zero, perhaps feeling merciful for the night, merely chuckles. 

“A tempting offer, but I’ll have to decline. There are matters I must take care of on my end for the morrow….” 

Light banter gives way to gravity again, as Suzaku reflects on the weight of the raid— to storm the main castle, overtake Emperor Charles vi Britannia and his forces. To put an end to the repressive caste of the haves and have-nots. 

“Zero.” 

“Hmm?” 

Suzaku pauses, holding onto the stretch of silence. 

“When this is all over… what are you going to do?” 

Amethyst eyes flicker over his face. 

“I wonder. Interested in my plans for the future?” Zero leans in, close enough that Suzaku can make out the sunset on his lashes. Suzaku flushes. 

“You’re impossible.” 

The demon lord chuckles, a pleasant tenor that carries through the air. 

Pushing down the feeling of self-consciousness, Suzaku clears his throat. “You’ll be coming back, right? To this realm, I mean.” 

Zero stares at him, eyes widening a fraction in surprise. Then, his face softens ever so slightly, and Suzaku’s heart stutters a beat—

“How could I ever leave you behind?”

.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.

His mouth is parted in a silent scream, gaze fixated on the ornate spear that protrudes from Zero’s chest. 

_It wasn’t supposed to be like this._

“Not even a smile, after all the trouble I went through to find you…?” Zero asks, almost conversational, if not for the line of crimson that trails from the corner of his mouth and down his chin. 

_The infiltration itself had been successful. They’d been able to isolate the emperor from his personal guards. Everything had gone according to plan, until the emperor had revealed his trump card: being a demon contractor, and a powerful one at that._

Suzaku shakes, unable to wrench his gaze from the figure before him. Blood pounds in his ears, a roaring cacophony that drowns out the surroundings. His vision blurs, edges fading to white. 

_He has to make it better. He can’t afford to stay motionless. He has to fight with his comrades, the Black Knights that are still fighting._

_It wasn't supposed to be like this. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It wasn’t supposed to be like th—_

“Suzaku, breathe.” Something touches the side of his cheeks; seconds later, the sensation registers like a jolt of lightning, and Suzaku finds himself talking, words tumbling from his mouth. 

“I— I’ll get help. I still have a bit of mana left for healing, just enough to stabilize the wound until Kallen or C.C can reach us. And if that’s not enough—”

“Suzaku.” 

“—the Underworld,” the hero continues, “we’ll get you to the Underworld. You can recover there, right? You’ll have your mana, and healers, someone has to be able to help—” 

“Suza—” 

_“I’m not your Suzaku!”_ His voice cracks mid-sentence, trailing off into a broken hiss. 

Zero arches an eyebrow. “Of course not. Mine stabbed me through the chest….” At Suzaku’s pained expression, the demon gives him a crooked smile. “Not in the mood for joking, are we.” 

Tracing the bags under Suzaku’s eyes, Zero speaks again, low and gentle. “All the conditions for this plan have been cleared. Emperor Charles considers me as the greatest threat here. He expects no one else to have the capacity to defeat him… which will be his undoing.” 

The demon rests his fingers against the corner of Suzaku’s lips. They feel shockingly cold to the touch. 

“I’m going to transfer the last bit of mana I have to you, along with a spell.”

“What?” Suzaku starts, eyes widening in shock. 

Zero lifts a finger. 

“It’ll be enough to shatter the contract bond between the emperor and his demon, Marianne. Once the contract is broken, the recoil will eradicate any demons in the area, and leave Emperor Charles open for capture.” 

It’s almost comical. There are a thousand questions running through his mind, but the first one that hangs on his tongue is the one he finds unable to voice. 

A slight tremor runs through the demon lord’s hand as he draws Suzaku closer by the nape of his neck.

“My apologies for taking your first kiss, Suzaku Kururugi,” Zero murmurs, before pressing his lips against the hero’s own. 

And it is all Suzaku can do, but clutch onto the being before him as a storm of lightning courses through his veins, the fire of a thousand stars burning in his lungs. The stretch of a millennia condensed into a second, an eternity crammed into a shard of time— 

His finger twitches when he registers the sensation of Zero pushing against his chest, a gentle tap that feels definite. 

“Go.”

.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.

_He’s tapping his feet nervously against the floor, when Zero enters through the front doors of the cabin._

_“Enjoying your house arrest?”_

_Suzaku shoots him an irritated glare. It holds nowhere near the level of intimidation he wants to convey, given that he’s dressed in plain sleeping robes and sitting on a plush sofa— that much is made clear when the demon lord has the audacity to chuckle in his face._

_Ignoring the demon’s amusement, Suzaku grumbles under his breath. “Your general, Kallen… I don’t think she likes me very much.”_

_“I thought you’d gotten along rather nicely.”_

_Suzaku frowns._

_“I’m trying to be as civil as I can. I understand she’s wary about humans, but it’s been… difficult, because she acts as if I’ll betray you at the first opportunity.”_

_Zero hums, amusement twinkling in his eyes. Walking around the sofa, he stops to lean against its back, sitting close to Suzaku’s shoulders._

_“She is only concerned for me. You are the first human I’ve offered to work with in many, many years, after all… much less offer my protection.”_

_The brunet fiddles with his sleeves, feeling admonished. “I… I understand that. It’s not that I’m ungrateful. It’s just, she keeps warning me not to form a contract with you, when I don’t even know your true name.”_

_From the corner of his eye, he spots Zero stiffen._

_“Sorry, was that—”_

_“Magic doesn’t have to be verbal. The strongest contract is formed through the connection of two souls. A true name is merely the verbal form of one’s soul, after all.”_

_Suzaku turns around completely to face Zero, feeling peevish. “What does that have to do with General Kallen being so… protective?”_

_The demon lord turns his head. Mischief lines his lips as he replies, “The general fears that you will make undesirable advances towards me, seeing how vulnerable I am against your holy blessings…”_

_Suzaku scowls and stands up from the sofa. Hands clenched into fists by his side, he mutters, “You’re impossible. Is it too much to ask for you to take this a little more seriously?”_

_Zero responds, albeit more quietly, as he faces the wall again._

_“I always have, when it comes to you.”_

.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.

**[epilogue]**

It is dark.

Dark, but for the feeling of fingers in his hair, lingering over the strands of black, teasing out the tangles with a gentle touch. 

When he stirs, the hand pauses, a silent question that carefully works its way up to his crown, drawing slow circles that trace back down to the base of his neck. 

“This is nice,” he murmurs. His throat feels parched, as if he hadn’t drank a drop of water in years. “Maybe I should die a little more often.” 

Immediately, he is greeted with a painful flick to the forehead. 

_“Ow!”_

The sensation is jarring, but it is enough to draw him from the endless labyrinth of the shadows. Blearily, he opens his eyes— shuts it closed not a second later. 

Opening his eyes is painful. It always has been, with the light washing the entire world white, until he gets used to the surroundings. 

Still, he blinks, narrows his eyes to focus on the pair of emerald stars that glitter above him. Brown curls, an exasperated smile. 

“You’ve kept me waiting, Lelouch.” 

“So I have.”

**Author's Note:**

> uhhhh except i still need to write my sad fix-it fic for rolo so, we'll see


End file.
